Conflict of Interest?
by Spoggly
Summary: Cuddy/Foreman. She didn't hire him back just because of House.    Spoilers for the end of S3 and the beginning few episodes of S4


Cuddy had done more than one thing for House in the time she had known him - just because he was House. He was a unique entity, a force of nature - too weird to live, too rare to die. Of course, that didn't mean she had to listen to the bastard.

Similarly, she refused to listen to his protege (although he refused to admit it). Foreman may have left the hospital, (he tried at least) but the hospitable arms he had expected to fall into at New York Mercy had very inhospitably pushed him back to PPTH. Thank god. If House got any crazier even Wilson wouldn't be able to reign him back in. And if she got any more sexually frustrated she might just go ahead and kill House to save them all the trouble.

She could see him through the blinds in House's office, picking through the accumulated drifts of paperwork on his boss's desk with obvious distaste. Thank god it was an absurd hour of the night; she probably looked like a loon with her face pressed against the glass trying to angle her point of view. At least House wasn't lurking around to stare at her ass. He had left earlier with Wilson.

They had both looked suspiciously cheerful, now that she thought about it. And they both got into Wilson's car. Not that she was watching from her office window or anything. And she definitely didn't keep a pair of binoculars around for days when staring at people in the parking lot was infinitely more interesting that listening to yet another child's lungs in the clinic.

Her train of thought got derailed when Foreman bent over to pick up a fallen patient file. He wasn't wearing a lab coat - or a jacket, for that matter - and she could see the firm muscles of his gorgeous ass through the dark fabric of his slacks. _Yes_, she thought, _completely worth the trip up_. She couldn't be utterly professional all the time, after all, and the spectacle in front of her was definitely worth the indignity of acting like a deranged teenager who had just discovered a peephole into boy's locker room. Now he was turning around and walking toward the door. Maybe he was going for the lamp? But what was he coming towards the wall for?

She jumped backwards when the blinds snapped open, revealing her staring through the glass. She feebly finger-waved at him; he returned it with a widening grin and a raised eyebrow. Swallowing her pride, she pushed into the office.

"So, how does it feel to be back?" she asked, trying her best to pretend that she had not just been caught pulling a stunt of House-like creepiness.

"It feels oddly like I'm being watched," Foreman said, still looking steadily at her, still smirking as she felt a faint blush creep across her face.

"Well, I just wanted to make sure you were settling back in," she said. "And now that I've said hello, I'll just...get going."

"Are you sure?" he asked, halting her in mid-turn and brandishing a folder at her. "I had a patient file I wanted your opinion on. We needed an opinion on a possible hormone imbalance in a patient, and since you're here anyway..."

"Of course! Where's the file?" Yes, professional. Professional she could do. It totally wasn't as if she had been eying Foreman since House hired him, and it definitely wasn't like she had kissed him in her office when he handed her his resignation, and she had most definitely not just been caught staring at his ass. They were just two doctors. Diagnosing patients, looking at test results, the height of decorum.

She most definitely wasn't expecting Foreman to pull her against him when she went for the file he was holding, possibly even less than she was expecting the subsequent sensation of his warm mouth on hers. After she got over her initial shock, she _was_ expecting his tongue stroking softly against her lips.

When he slowly pulled back a tiny moan followed him, escaping without her notice.

"Sorry," he said, looking unusually flustered. "I just thought, when you hired me back, that..."

He trailed off and looked so uncomfortable that she went ahead and finished the sentence. She had been thinking about this since a week after he left, and rehearsing it in her head since the day he got dismissed from Mercy.

"That's not why I hired you back, Foreman. Even House isn't the reason - I hired you back because you're a damn good doctor, and you're someone I want working in my hospital. If that's clear, however, I see no reason why you can't continue with what you were doing."

Foreman smiled, genuinely, at her. "I had hoped it was a purely administrative decision; it means there won't be a conflict of interest when I ask you to come back to my apartment tonight."

Cuddy smiled and smoothed her hair back from her face.

"Just as long as you're sure you're not starting anything you can't finish, Eric."


End file.
